Recommended Reading for Hospice Nurses

There are so many good books out there. I have been a hospice nurse for 10 years and certified in hospice and palliative care for 5 years. For a great reference book, look at "20 Common Problems: End-of-life Care by Kinzbrunner, Weinreb, and Policzer. Another handy pocket size reference book is "Symptom Management Algorithms: A Handbook for Palliative Care" by Linda Wrede-Seaman MD. I highly recommend getting connected to the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association at www.hpna.org You will find all kinds of resources there. Good luck and welcome to hospice nursing!

You can also find "Fast Facts" on the Hospice and Palliative Care Nurses Association website at www.hpna.org

Has anyone read Glimpses of Heaven by Trudy Harris? I thought it was good!

what are the reimbursement rates for hospice dx

Not a book, but a resource I've found really helpful is Pallimed, a blog that shares critiques of recent EOL literature. Run by 2 MDs (one of whom is the editor for Fast Facts, both of whom I believe are also faculty of palliative care programs) and an NP. They have also just expanded to include sister sites, one a cultural one (film, non-research literature, etc) and the other that are case studies. Good info and good people (if you go to an HPNA/AAHPM conference, their gatherings are fun).

As to the use of the term end-of-life, I use it all the time, but I'm also an academic. It's useful b/c hospice has become a very limited term that r/t people who meet specific Medicare criteria in the U.S. I suppose one could say hospice and palliative care, but I have a problem with that because everyone should be receiving palliative care. We can talk about people with chronic, terminal conditions, or life-limiting illnesses, or...the reality is that we still do not have universally accepted language for what happens or what we do when people's time in their present body becomes clearly limited.

As for the person who found palliative care an awful phrase, they really don't get what it is. Palliative care is care that focuses on symptoms and quality of life. Why shouldn't someone who is getting some kind of active treatment also be having their symptoms palliated? And be engaged in conversations that check whether or not their current plan of care is in keeping with their values, wishes, and goals? That's my understanding of palliative care.

Furthermore, while I understand why people cannot, in general have tx and hospice, it really is sometimes a shame. Having seen people with terrible boney mets get incredible symptom relief from radiation or bisphosphonates or a venting g-tube it just seems so short sighted to not be able to offer those things. Also, having seen people miss out on the psychological, emotional and family support that comes with hospice b/c they had reasons to continue tx seems inhumane. But that's the reality of medicine in the US isn't it?

I like "Risking Everything" by Rodger Housden and Mary Oliver's vol 2 collection--both poetry, but some of the best for this work. Poetry speaks to the heart and soul! mine and theirs! And "Final Gifts" is most excellent

In helping to discuss DNR status with family i have found the book "Hard Choices for Loving People" very helpful i believe the author is Harry Dunn....

One of my absolute favorites:

“Upon the Seashore”

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: "Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

-- Henry Van Dyke

Yes, that one is also one of my favorites!

Diane, thank you SO much for sharing that. It gave me chills.

PH